A simple yet effective 5-point checklist for business start-ups

The following five steps are based on the experiences of many entrepreneurs and have helped many of them start, grow and maintain a successful business.

Starting a brand new business from scratch is by no means an easy task. Entrepreneurs and business-owners need to have focus, patience and the willpower to see things through even when the odds are against them. But once your business is up and running, you’re presented with a unique opportunity to choose your own staff, set your own working hours and walk the path of business success on your own terms. The following five steps are based on the experiences of many entrepreneurs and have helped many of them start, grow and maintain a successful business.

1. Do an adequate market research

People think that the success of a business depends largely on the creation of a single revolutionary product that everyone in the world wants to own. But just because you sell a particular product does not mean that anyone will end up buying it. In reality, success is accomplished by finding the right market first and then thinking about ways to satisfy its needs with your specific line of products and services. More often than not, we see young entrepreneurs enter the market without realizing that there wasn’t enough market share to keep their business running in the first place.

2. Secure the initial funding

Starting a business without proper investments is next to impossible. You can look for outside investors, but finding them takes a lot of time and effort and often demands giving up a chunk of the company shares. Alternatively, you can apply for a personal loan or use your credit card to cover the initial expenses, but your record will have to be absolutely impeccable. If you have a bad credit card score, you will have no other choice but to borrow less money at higher interest rates. Improving your credit score, however, allows you to borrow more and not have to deal with ridiculously high-interest rates.

3. Hire a decent attorney

One of the first things you should do before officially launching your business is to seek legal counsel. What most inexperienced entrepreneurs and business owners do is consider hiring an attorney only when they’re already in trouble, by which point it’s already too late for the large majority of them. Preventative and proactive legal counsel is the key to running a successful business which allows business owners to stay clear of any legal issues, instead of relying on expensive attorneys to get themselves out trouble.

4. Gather a decent team of professionals

Among all the mistakes young entrepreneurs make, the biggest one is thinking they can accomplish everything by themselves. Avoid making this mistake and instead, focus on surrounding yourself with the most suitable individuals to accomplish the tasks at hand. Hiring full-time is not advisable for two reasons: you’re already working with a limited budget and want to reduce the costs associated with labor and hiring full-time workers for one-off tasks is simply a waste of resources on the long-term. A more practical idea would be to outsource your workers or to hire college interns and part-time employees.

5. Provide your workers with a productive work environment

Things such as break-room setup, office layout, company culture and co-worker dynamics all have a large impact on the productivity levels in your company. It’s important to provide your employees with a clean, comfortable and relaxing workspace and reward their hard work with gift cards and vouchers, additional cash at the end of the month or even a company vacation. Keeping the entire office space clean requires more than simply asking your workers to clean up themselves, which is why you might want to consider hiring a professional junk removal service and have them take care of keeping the office clean.

Starting a business isn’t for everyone. It requires a lot of hard work, dedication, and the willpower to persist even through the toughest of times. But at the end of the day, it’s not rocket science. Performing adequate research, securing investments, getting an attorney and finding only the best workers is nothing more than common-sense advice that, when followed, allows entrepreneurs and small business owners to build and maintain a successful and profitable business.

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Tycoonstory is the largest Online Network for Entrepreneurs & Startups. Tycoonstory gives the opportunity to share the challenges of being an entrepreneur and offers a regularly updated resource on entrepreneurship. Tycoonstory explores the creative process and issues around how people, companies, and industries are making it happen.